1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an automatic synthesizer apparatus and method for producing radiopharmaceutical tumor imaging agent Gallium-68-DOTATATE (1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid octreotate), and more particularly to an automatic synthesizer apparatus having convenient control process for saving cost with increasing yield.
2. Description of Related Art
Gallium isotopes Ga-68 are feasible to form stable complex with DOTA without difficulty, this complex with a high ratio of activity can be used to locate peptides or other small molecules. Gallium-68 after completely transformed yields can be as high as 89% suitable for PET imaging. Since Ga-68 nuclide has half-life of 68 minutes, which is suitable for pharmacokinetics assessment for many kinds of peptides, and this feature of Ga-68 nuclides is well used in the fields of diagnostic imaging and therapeutic research.
Conventional operational process for producing radiopharmaceutical tumor imaging agent Gallium-68-DOTATATE generally includes hardware and software two parts. In the part of hardware, conventional synthesizing box has shortcomings in the aspect of automatic labeling process, construction, layout, and arrangement that need to be resolved. In the part of software, the automatic labeling process of conventional synthesizing box is attached to and controlled by other equipments, causing problems of complexity in the process of operation and with its bulk software. As a consequence, the production yield would be low and resources would be wasted were the problems not resolved.
In the prior art EP2488212/WO201133120A2, it developed a set of new labeling method for radioactive material. The prior art disclosed a method of obtaining 68Ga from a 68Ge/68Ga radioisotope generator and a method of preparing 68Ga-radiolabelled complexes using the obtained 68Ga that comprise elution of the generator with an aqueous chloride ion solution and an apparatus for carrying out the 68Ga metal complex formation. Nevertheless, the hardware has shortcomings in the aspect of process, construction, layout and arrangement. It needs to be solved to avoid yield decreasing and resources wasting.
In the prior art EP2467365/WO2011020907, it disclosed a method of labeling biological targeting molecules (BTMs) of interest with radioiodine, preparing radioiodine BTMs and radiopharmaceutical compositions, and of vivo imaging processing. Since the software is loaded in and controlled by other equipments, a large number of data and program are built in chips, causing complexity in manipulation and high failure rate. Therefore, it is important to solve the problems of manipulation complexity and bulk software involved to avoid yield decreasing and resources wasting.
To overcome the drawbacks, the present invention tends to provide an automatic synthesizer apparatus for producing radiopharmaceutical tumor imaging agent Gallium-68-DOTATATE and method to mitigate and obviate the aforementioned problems.